Tempo:
,
TEACHING OF NANAK
CHAP. II
39
looks with favour. 1 Yet the extension of grace is i469-i539. hnked with the exercise of our will and the beneficent Faith, grace, use of our faculties. God, said Nanak, places salvation and good wo^^^s ^^^ in good works and uprightness of conduct: the Lord necessary, teacher the ^—and done?' will ask of man, 'What has he further required timely repentance of men, saying, 'If not until the day of reckoning the sinner abaseth him-
punishment shall overtake him'.=*
self,
the philosophical system of his Nanak bliss as the dwelling of the g'J^P*^^*^^ regarded and countrymen,
Nanak adopted
soul with God after its punitory transmigrations should ^^^^^ ^^.^^_ have ceased. Life, he says, is as the shadow of the ^^^^y. ^ut passing bird, but the soul of man is, as the potter's in a popuwheel, ever circling on its pivot.^ He makes the same lar sense, or by way uses of the current language or notions of the time on bright remains who he says, other subjects, and thus °f^^""^j"' amid darkness (Anjan) unmoved amid deceit (Maya) that is, perfect amid temptation, should attain happiBut it would be idle to suppose that he specuness.'^ lated upon being, or upon the material world, after ,
and it would be of Plato or Vyasa; unreasonable to condemn him because he preferred the doctrine of a succession of habiliments, and the possible purification of the most sinful soul, to the resurrection of the same body, and the pains of everlasting fire.'
manner
the
''
1 See the Adi-Granth, end of the Asa Rag, and in the supplementary portion called the Ratan Mala. 2 The Adi-Granth, Prabhati Ragni, Cf. Malcolm (Sketch, p. 161) and Wilkins (As. Res., i. 289, &c.). See the Nasihat Nama, or admonition of Nanak to Karon, a fabulous monarch, which, however, is not admitted into the Granth, perhaps because its personal or particular application is not in keeping with the abstract and general nature of that book. Neither, indeed, is it certainly known to be Nanak's composition, although it embodies many of his notions. ^ Adi-Granth, end of the Asa Rag. * Adi-Granth. in the Suhi and Ramkali portions. 6 See Appendix VIII. •'
' The usual objection of the Muhammadans to the Hindu doctrine of transmigration is, that the wicked soul of this present world has no remembrance of its past' condition and bygone punishments, and does not, therefore, bring with it any inherent incentive to holiness. The Muhammadans, however, do not show that a knowledge of the sin of Adam, and consequent corruption of his posterity, is instinctive to a follower of Christ or to a disciple of their own prophet; and, metaphysically, an impartial thinker will perhaps prefer the Brahman doctrine of a soul finally separated from the changeable matter of our senses, to the Egyptian scheme of the resurrection of the corruptible body, a notion which seems to have impressed itself on the Israelites, notwithstanding the silence of Moses, and which resisted for centuries the action of other systems, and which was at length revived with increased force in connexion with the popular belief in miracles. See also note 2, p. 24 ante.
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TEACHING OF NANAK
CHAP. II
39
looks with favour. 1 Yet the extension of grace is i469-i539. hnked with the exercise of our will and the beneficent Faith, grace, use of our faculties. God, said Nanak, places salvation and good wo^^^s ^^^ in good works and uprightness of conduct: the Lord necessary, teacher the ^—and done?' will ask of man, 'What has he further required timely repentance of men, saying, 'If not until the day of reckoning the sinner abaseth him-
punishment shall overtake him'.=*
self,
the philosophical system of his Nanak bliss as the dwelling of the g'J^P*^^*^^ regarded and countrymen,
Nanak adopted
soul with God after its punitory transmigrations should ^^^^^ ^^.^^_ have ceased. Life, he says, is as the shadow of the ^^^^y. ^ut passing bird, but the soul of man is, as the potter's in a popuwheel, ever circling on its pivot.^ He makes the same lar sense, or by way uses of the current language or notions of the time on bright remains who he says, other subjects, and thus °f^^""^j"' amid darkness (Anjan) unmoved amid deceit (Maya) that is, perfect amid temptation, should attain happiBut it would be idle to suppose that he specuness.'^ lated upon being, or upon the material world, after ,
and it would be of Plato or Vyasa; unreasonable to condemn him because he preferred the doctrine of a succession of habiliments, and the possible purification of the most sinful soul, to the resurrection of the same body, and the pains of everlasting fire.'
manner
the
''
1 See the Adi-Granth, end of the Asa Rag, and in the supplementary portion called the Ratan Mala. 2 The Adi-Granth, Prabhati Ragni, Cf. Malcolm (Sketch, p. 161) and Wilkins (As. Res., i. 289, &c.). See the Nasihat Nama, or admonition of Nanak to Karon, a fabulous monarch, which, however, is not admitted into the Granth, perhaps because its personal or particular application is not in keeping with the abstract and general nature of that book. Neither, indeed, is it certainly known to be Nanak's composition, although it embodies many of his notions. ^ Adi-Granth, end of the Asa Rag. * Adi-Granth. in the Suhi and Ramkali portions. 6 See Appendix VIII. •'
' The usual objection of the Muhammadans to the Hindu doctrine of transmigration is, that the wicked soul of this present world has no remembrance of its past' condition and bygone punishments, and does not, therefore, bring with it any inherent incentive to holiness. The Muhammadans, however, do not show that a knowledge of the sin of Adam, and consequent corruption of his posterity, is instinctive to a follower of Christ or to a disciple of their own prophet; and, metaphysically, an impartial thinker will perhaps prefer the Brahman doctrine of a soul finally separated from the changeable matter of our senses, to the Egyptian scheme of the resurrection of the corruptible body, a notion which seems to have impressed itself on the Israelites, notwithstanding the silence of Moses, and which resisted for centuries the action of other systems, and which was at length revived with increased force in connexion with the popular belief in miracles. See also note 2, p. 24 ante.
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